Opera Mini for Samsung Instinct

Opera Mini for Samsung Instinct

The Samsung Instinct will soon be released, June 20th. It will have a BREW/Java operating platform. Will Opera Mini work on the Instinct? If not, is Opera developing a release for the Instinct? Thank you.

Yet another plea for Opera Mini on the Instinct. I miss it already!
Thank you!

Originally posted by ManneS:

jsmith123, thanks for the video. As I already mentioned, one of our guys is moving to the US. We will buy the phone, and we will look into this. As usual, we can't make any promises. There will not be a special version of Opera Mini for the Instinct, but hopefully we can implement some fixes into already existing versions.

So, no promises, but we hear you guys, and we understand your frustration.

I don't think I'm alone in saying this is very disappointing, although I understand y'alls position. The bad guys in all of this is Sprint for not contacting Opera when they were developing the phone. It probably would have been a LOT cheaper to pay you guys to port a version of MINI, seeing as how it already runs fairly well on it. Instead, they spent who knows how much developing a substandard browser from scratch.

Touchscreen Java phones seem to be getting more popular. The Instinct alone is setting sales records for Sprint. I hope you guys will take pity on our new community and port a version of MINI for us soon. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Originally posted by ManneS:

jsmith123, thanks for the video. As I already mentioned, one of our guys is moving to the US. We will buy the phone, and we will look into this. As usual, we can't make any promises. There will not be a special version of Opera Mini for the Instinct, but hopefully we can implement some fixes into already existing versions.

So, no promises, but we hear you guys, and we understand your frustration.

i appreciate you guys doing what you can do. i understand this is pretty low on your list given that this is a US only phone, and sprint really screwed up not letting people at your company know about this phone far before its release. not every company even has a forum frequented by developers who actually respond to people, so i figure if any company can do this- opera people probably can.

as a message to the instinct lovers here- i think this can work. the code needed to get opera mini running in its current version on instinct (along with all the other phones it works on) wont be too bad. opera already tweaks its install depending on the phone it gets put on, so its really a matter of changing the text entry code from going to the blank screen and using they keys, to subing in the 'keyboard widget' code in that place if the phone is the instinct. its not quite that simple (by far) but its not that bad, and we could actually see this one day come to our beloved instinct

Please make opera mini work on the instinct it would be much appreciated

Originally posted by jigielnik:

Originally posted by ManneS:

jsmith123, thanks for the video. As I already mentioned, one of our guys is moving to the US. We will buy the phone, and we will look into this. As usual, we can't make any promises. There will not be a special version of Opera Mini for the Instinct, but hopefully we can implement some fixes into already existing versions.

So, no promises, but we hear you guys, and we understand your frustration.

i appreciate you guys doing what you can do. i understand this is pretty low on your list given that this is a US only phone, and sprint really screwed up not letting people at your company know about this phone far before its release. not every company even has a forum frequented by developers who actually respond to people, so i figure if any company can do this- opera people probably can.

as a message to the instinct lovers here- i think this can work. the code needed to get opera mini running in its current version on instinct (along with all the other phones it works on) wont be too bad. opera already tweaks its install depending on the phone it gets put on, so its really a matter of changing the text entry code from going to the blank screen and using they keys, to subing in the 'keyboard widget' code in that place if the phone is the instinct. its not quite that simple (by far) but its not that bad, and we could actually see this one day come to our beloved instinct

Sprint screwed up MORE by not making an option for a a keyboard pop up universally no matter what java app is in use.... requiring special versions for this phone. Absurd.

Originally posted by chris4400:

Sprint screwed up MORE by not making an option for a a keyboard pop up universally no matter what java app is in use.... requiring special versions for this phone. Absurd.

i totally agree, while its disappointing that we wont see opera mini on instinct for a while, sprint is the one who dropped the ball and screwed everything up. by not getting this stuff sorted out beforehand, they have created a java phone where no java app with text entry (basically all of them) can work.

All this being said... I don't know if it would be that difficult to just slap on Sprint's bull**** code to call up the keyboard at the end, recompile, and make Instinct users happy ;-) But hey what do I know.

Originally posted by sweetgreggo:

It probably would have been a LOT cheaper to pay you guys to port a version of MINI, seeing as how it already runs fairly well on it. Instead, they spent who knows how much developing a substandard browser from scratch.

I'm pretty sure the Instinct browser is a version of the Teleca Obigo browser, which is also third party, not Sprint developed. The Verizon Dare will also feature a version of this crud. Of course that just makes the situation worse because Sprint almost certainly isn't working directly on fixing the browser right now. If they're doing anything at all they are barking at Teleca to fix their @#$%& POS browser which Sprint licenses for who knows how much (more than its worth, obviously).

Originally posted by Bradskey:

Originally posted by sweetgreggo:

It probably would have been a LOT cheaper to pay you guys to port a version of MINI, seeing as how it already runs fairly well on it. Instead, they spent who knows how much developing a substandard browser from scratch.

I'm pretty sure the Instinct browser is a version of the Teleca Obigo browser, which is also third party, not Sprint developed. The Verizon Dare will also feature a version of this crud. Of course that just makes the situation worse because Sprint almost certainly isn't working directly on fixing the browser right now. If they're doing anything at all they are barking at Teleca to fix their @#$%& POS browser which Sprint licenses for who knows how much (more than its worth, obviously).

Yeah, I had read that somewhere before. It's really mind boggling in that it doesn't seem that Opera was even considered here. There are either some extremely unknowledgeable people working at Sprint or they are just plain dumb. I'm thinking both.

The browser is going to be a huge arguing point of Instinct vs iPhone. Sprint could have kept the hounds at bay if they would have worked with Opera on this. As of right now, when some Apple fanboi starts razzing me about my browser, I have absolutely no retort.

this is such a bummer, i saw a video of how opera runs on the instinct and it looked amazing, its truly unfortunate this device does not further support this fantastic browser

Originally posted by sweetgreggo:

As of right now, when some Apple fanboi starts razzing me about my browser, I have absolutely no retort.

Haha.. so true. Crapple's browser is 50x better. *sobs*

the only knock ive heard about on the instinct not being on par with the iphone is the browser, at least thats seems to me to be the major difference, this browser would make the instinct at least on par if not better than the iphone god i hope they get this done soon

I have been using Opera mini on my Samsung SPH A-900 (Blade) since I first got that phone. What a great app! I recently upgraded my phone to the Samsung SPH M-800 (Instinct) and the native web-browser on my instinct SUX! I recently saw that an Opera mini 9.5 was being released on July 15, 2008. Will this new version work with the Instinct?
I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you

Steve

Originally posted by MJnevetS:

I have been using Opera mini on my Samsung SPH A-900 (Blade) since I first got that phone. What a great app! I recently upgraded my phone to the Samsung SPH M-800 (Instinct) and the native web-browser on my instinct SUX! I recently saw that an Opera mini 9.5 was being released on July 15, 2008. Will this new version work with the Instinct?
I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you

Steve

Man i hadnt heard about the new version of opera coming out, that gives me a little bit more hope, although the devs did say that they were not currently working on this, so if it does work i imagine its gonna be by a stroke of luck

Originally posted by mattmanbass:

Originally posted by MJnevetS:

I have been using Opera mini on my Samsung SPH A-900 (Blade) since I first got that phone. What a great app! I recently upgraded my phone to the Samsung SPH M-800 (Instinct) and the native web-browser on my instinct SUX! I recently saw that an Opera mini 9.5 was being released on July 15, 2008. Will this new version work with the Instinct?
I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you

Steve

Man i hadnt heard about the new version of opera coming out, that gives me a little bit more hope, although the devs did say that they were not currently working on this, so if it does work i imagine its gonna be by a stroke of luck

I think ya'll are talking about Opera Mobile, which will NEVER run on Instinct. Opera Mini is currently version 4.1

Actually, I don't know how feasible this is, but I wish Sprint had contracted with Opera to develop a Symbian port of Opera Mobile as the native browser on their phones, instead of this other trash we got stuck with. Mini is great, but I can only imagine a fully-integrated native Opera Mobile would be mobile browsing bliss.

I agree with everyone else opera mini is absolutely needed for the samsung instinct. The browser bundled with the phone is absolutely horrible but other then that its a great phone. I see this is a huge opprotunity for the opera community to spread awareness of its browser since this phone is selling like hotcakes and nearly every instinct user would download the browser. So please dont miss out on this opprotunity to show off your awesome browser and make it compatible with the instinct.

I am writing this post to officially petition for the Opera mini browser to be available and functional on the Samsung Instinct. I also believe this is a great opportunity for Opera to spread knowledge to a wider market concerning it's browser. Pretty please with a cherry on top, make it happen!!!

This is a little off topic but. I was testing out Opera Mini on my PSP using the java emu. I forgot what I did but when I went to the search box then selected google, an on screen keyboard popped up. I don't know if this was built into Opera Mini or the Java emu. I tried to get it to work on my Instinct but I did not get the same onscreen keyboard.

Just thought I would share my findings. Lets not give up hope yet. I have switched over from Firefox to Opera on my computer and I must say, it's a much faster browser. I really hope we can get it on our Instincts.

Originally posted by Lunkwill:

Originally posted by dpinside:

Sorry to say, OPERA developers could actually care less (as its not even available to them in the EU).

Did you mean "couldn't"? If you did then it's just not true, we care for most of our users no matter where they are located in the world.

As in, it's not a top priority for you to release a working version for a phone hot off the shelf.

Wow I'm sad to see that not a single Opera Rep has responded to our cry for a Instinct capable Opera browser. Please please please PLEASE develop an opera browser that will work on the Instinct!!! And fast!

Originally posted by scoloni87:

Wow I'm sad to see that not a single Opera Rep has responded to our cry for a Instinct capable Opera browser. Please please please PLEASE develop an opera browser that will work on the Instinct!!! And fast!

An Opera rep did indeed respond.

Originally posted by Lunkwill:

Originally posted by dpinside:

Sorry to say, OPERA developers could actually care less (as its not even available to them in the EU).

Did you mean "couldn't"? If you did then it's just not true, we care for most of our users no matter where they are located in the world.

Hi Lunkwill,

Thanks for those encouraging words and all the Sprint Instinct users are happy that you guys are looking into it. Some do get impatient out of excitement of a new phone but please don't mind their words that might sound rough sometimes.

Originally posted by Lunkwill:

we care for most of our users no matter where they are located in the world.

if i may speak for all instinct users around the US, we thank you for your care and concern. people shouldnt be mad at opera anyway, you guys didnt even know- it was sprint who dropped the ball. basically no java apps work for instinct, and its because sprint didnt tell any developers- including the good people at opera. i thank you for doing what you can

Another Thread asking Please......

this below message is straight from lunkwill who is a member of the opera staff, i sent him a pm asking about this and this was his response,

We are working on it, but I can't give any promise of a timeframe when a fix could be released, if ever. This is mostly due to that Samsung made some very poor decicions when integrating the JVM into the Instinct, one was removing the (probably mandatory) default method of text input in Java ME...

But keep your hopes up, a lot of us here at Opera would like this to work on the Instinct as well... =)


so there you have it, they are working on it and are fully aware of this problem, i imagine these things just take time and as hard as its gonna be we all just need to be patient, im not good at patience, but that is whats required lol

Originally posted by mattmanbass:

this below message is straight from lunkwill who is a member of the opera staff, i sent him a pm asking about this and this was his response,

We are working on it, but I can't give any promise of a timeframe when a fix could be released, if ever. This is mostly due to that Samsung made some very poor decicions when integrating the JVM into the Instinct, one was removing the (probably mandatory) default method of text input in Java ME...

But keep your hopes up, a lot of us here at Opera would like this to work on the Instinct as well... =)


so there you have it, they are working on it and are fully aware of this problem, i imagine these things just take time and as hard as its gonna be we all just need to be patient, im not good at patience, but that is whats required lol

Leave it to Sprint to take something simple and screw it up.

Luckily, the Instinct is selling extremely well, so hopefully that will give Opera a little incentive to make a version that works with it.

I still think Sprint really screwed the pooch by (apparently) not contacting Opera to develop the OEM browser for the phone. They need to get people working for them that have a clue when it comes to this stuff. I don't how much they paid the company to develop the current browser, but it was WAY too much, when they could have contracted Opera to make small adjustments to their current software. That would have put the phone one step closer to being a true iPhone rival.

ive said it on other forums, and i will say it here, right now instinct is an 8/10, but with opera mini its a 9.5, or maybe even a full 10/10

Hello,

I am new Instinct user and having enjoyed using Opera Mini on many phones throughout the years I eagerly await when this browser works on the Instinct. Hopefully the right people read these forums to get this browser working and I applaud the great work done with this browser on other phones so far.

Thanks.

Originally posted by mattmanbass:

this below message is straight from lunkwill who is a member of the opera staff, i sent him a pm asking about this and this was his response,

We are working on it, but I can't give any promise of a timeframe when a fix could be released, if ever. This is mostly due to that Samsung made some very poor decicions when integrating the JVM into the Instinct, one was removing the (probably mandatory) default method of text input in Java ME...

But keep your hopes up, a lot of us here at Opera would like this to work on the Instinct as well... =)

I just saw a number of news stories that very soon Samsung Instinct phone will be sold in Canada as well !! This means more opportunity to showcase Opera Mini on the Instinct phone!

Check out the video on this page: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=49004

Originally posted by Lunkwill:

Originally posted by lunkwill:

I can't give any promise of a timeframe when a fix could be released, if ever.

Originally posted by mattmanbass:

so there you have it, they are working on it and are fully aware of this problem, i imagine these things just take time and as hard as its gonna be we all just need to be patient, im not good at patience, but that is whats required lol

Please note the "if ever" part in my answer to you. I did not give any promises that we can fix this issue at our end.

Lunkwill, thanks for taking the time to chime in here. Please tell me if I understand the situation correctly.

From what I've read, Sprint is truly the ones who screwed everything up. I'm no programmer by any means, but apparently there are common routines already in java for specific things... like calling up a keyboard. Sprint didn't follow protocol when programming their OS, so now many programs will simply not work on the Instinct as currently programmed.

This just boggles my mind. Instead of being capable of running hundreds if not thousands of existing java applications (including Opera Mini) out of the box, Sprint has made their OS compatible with almost nothing. The only viable solution to this is a firmware upgrade. I don't even know who at Sprint you would need to contact to request this.

Bottom line, us Instinct owners are screwed. If Opera threw us a bone I know we would be grateful, but we certainly can't expect it.

As a programmer myself, I really do understand how big a problem this is. Sprint/Samsung basically failed to implement important pieces of the MIDP api. The more I think about what they've done the worse it seems. Tons of apps would probably have run just fine if they had simply done their job on this phone. The idea that thousands of apps are going to be tweaked/rewritten to work with a special API just for the Instinct is ludicrous. If we get Opera working I'll be grateful indeed -- we REALLY need it, there is NO hope for the included browser. Having made nothing but garbage, Teleca isn't going to suddenly about-face and produce a browser anybody actually likes. Beyond that we will likely only get the apps that Sprint delivers to us or works directly with 3rd parties to deliver to us, developer contest notwithstanding.

I vote OPERA MINI for INSTINCT. Its the best there is. It would be so awesome!

Originally posted by ManneS:

Originally posted by sweetgreggo:

Lunkwill, thanks for taking the time to chime in here. Please tell me if I understand the situation correctly.

We can't go into details here, and you won't get more info from us on this. Please understand!

Oh don't worry, I wasn't asking for trade secrets. There are many Instinct owners who are reading this thread hoping for the best. I just wanted to point out that the keyboard issue is solely Sprint's fault, since they didn't follow normal java compliance.

If you guys even take the time to ponder making a fix for us, I know we would all be thankful. If you don't or can't, it's perfectly understandable.

Hello - I got the Instinct 5 days ago and love it.. Some folks on http://www.sprintinstinctforum.com have a work around that works for Opera Mini 3.
It's basically clicking on links until you get what you want.. I think its a bit like easter egg hunting..

The link to the post is below if anyone is interested. good luck..

http://www.sprintinstinctforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=654

Hello my fellow Samsung Instinct owners! Please read and spend 10 minutes doing what is requested below.

You all are currently paying hefty fees to Sprint for this phone and still it seems that Sprint developers are unaware of serious limitation of missing J2ME (Java) MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard on the phone.

Therefore, I urge you to contact Sprint directly in the Sprint Intinct Developer's forum to implement the standard MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard so that all the existing Java mobile applications like Google Mobile Maps, Opera Mini 4.1, Teashark browser, UCWEB browser, etc. can work on your lovely phone.

Please contact Sprint directly to implement standard MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard here:
(yes, their registration process takes 5 minutes!)

http://developer.sprint.com/show_thread.do?forumId=378&searchBy2=MSG_PARENT_ID&searchValue2=-1&searchBy3=MSGFORUM_FORUMID&searchValue3=378&ps=10&pn=1&threadid=26008&sortDirection=0&sortCol=MSG_AUDIT_CREATE_DT

We are paying customers so they need to listen to us! The more of us contact Sprint, the more likely they are to pay attention.

Thanks to all! We need at least as many posts as in this thread in the Sprint's developer forum!

Originally posted by jsmith123:

Hello my fellow Samsung Instinct owners! Please read and spend 10 minutes doing what is requested below.

You all are currently paying hefty fees to Sprint for this phone and still it seems that Sprint developers are unaware of serious limitation of missing J2ME (Java) MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard on the phone.

Therefore, I urge you to contact Sprint directly in the Sprint Intinct Developer's forum to implement the standard MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard so that all the existing Java mobile applications like Google Mobile Maps, Opera Mini 4.1, Teashark browser, UCWEB browser, etc. can work on your lovely phone.

Please contact Sprint directly to implement standard MIDP 2.0 compliant keyboard here:
(yes, their registration process takes 5 minutes!)

http://developer.sprint.com/show_thread.do?forumId=378&searchBy2=MSG_PARENT_ID&searchValue2=-1&searchBy3=MSGFORUM_FORUMID&searchValue3=378&ps=10&pn=1&threadid=26008&sortDirection=0&sortCol=MSG_AUDIT_CREATE_DT

We are paying customers so they need to listen to us! The more of us contact Sprint, the more likely they are to pay attention.

Thanks to all! We need at least as many posts as in this thread in the Sprint's developer forum!

this is a great suggestion, we should all do this. the truth of the matter is that sprint could (and REALLY SHOULD) release a firmware update so that anytime the textbox code is read from a program, the instinct sees that as a command to run its keyboard widget, or something similar to that

Sorry if i am asking something stupid.
Can you save pages, download files using Opera Mini on the Instinct?
EDIT: Just realized from the other thread that v4.1 doesnt work fine on instinct. Sorry for asking such a silly question.

You can't even properly use Opera Mini on the Instinct, so I don't even understand why this question is being asked.

BIG NEWS ABOUT OPERA MINI ON INSTINCT
so i was reading an instinct forum on sprintusers.com, and i saw this post with some good news:

" Opera Mini 4.1 working on Samsung Instinct
Ever since I got the instinct, I had been trying to find a way to run opera mini - i read forums after forums after forums, blogs, blogs and complaints - used the latest software to cracked the phone - and also tried to used hacked versions of opera mini(om3), hacking the hacked version again - did most of the suggestions - been on developers.sprint.com - read every other forum instinct - used the emulator - the sdk's and the lather - but today I returned the instinct....

just because the only file i cannot get through is the main file - which contain the directions for turning the keyboard on and running 3rd party apps ( allowing untrusted apps )

As you can see - Opera mini 4.1 crashes and the obvious - two things

You cannot install the signed version of OM4 - the instinct's third party app is set to block and the unsigned version crashes because of the same
the keyboard is set to block -

I called customer service to reactivate my old 6700 and revert to my old plan- told them that it's because I can't run third party apps but i did not tell, one of them was opera mini - i just said third party apps -

I also told her the browser crashes, sprint.com itself crashes on it - so to my surprise she told me about another browser - I said what? And she said Opera Mini - I was like what, you can get me opera mini? She said "NO" but they already got it working on the instinct- i told her i have been working on it since I got the phone. She did not tell me what was wrong with it, only "two things had to be fixed" thats all - The browser works great - then I told her that I will not return the phone if sprint tells me how to get it working on mine - She told me she can't because its confidential third party information - but the browser is working now
I told them That I will return the phone if they cant help with this, and she said she couldn't at least not yet - so I returned it citing that I will not wait 8 or so like the helio

So there you go - sprint CS told me about a browser that I wasnt expecting for them to know about, told me it was fixed "

basically what it means is that people at sprint are claiming they have gotten opera mini working on the samsung instinct, i dont know if it was them, people at samsung or people at opera or what, but its good news no matter what.

I pray to Jeebuz that this is true! Please dont play with my emotions..

I was able to install the signed version on my Sprint phone by activating the developer root. Not an instinct though.

Originally posted by jigielnik:

BIG NEWS ABOUT OPERA MINI ON INSTINCT
so i was reading an instinct forum on sprintusers.com, and i saw this post with some good news:

That's not big news. That's just something someone on a forum said. Much like the "6/30/08 firmware update" rumor someone posted. There's no reason a CSR would say such a thing. It just sounds really absurd. I highly doubt even 10% of any CSRs at Sprint even know what Opera Mini is.

Even if so, it would not be up to Sprint to get Opera to work on the phone. It would be up to Opera. (Even though it's Sprint's fault for their crappy design requiring proprietary Sprint extensions to call the onscreen keyboard, etc)

So I call BS.

Originally posted by chris4400:

Originally posted by jigielnik:

BIG NEWS ABOUT OPERA MINI ON INSTINCT
so i was reading an instinct forum on sprintusers.com, and i saw this post with some good news:

That's not big news. That's just something someone on a forum said. Much like the "6/30/08 firmware update" rumor someone posted. There's no reason a CSR would say such a thing. It just sounds really absurd. I highly doubt even 10% of any CSRs at Sprint even know what Opera Mini is.

Even if so, it would not be up to Sprint to get Opera to work on the phone. It would be up to Opera. (Even though it's Sprint's fault for their crappy design requiring proprietary Sprint extensions to call the onscreen keyboard, etc)

So I call BS.

believe me, im as skeptical that this will happen as you, but im always optimistic

Ok, Let's try this a different way. How much do you guys want to develop a browser for the Instinct?! If every p*ssed off Instinct owner chips in 10 bucks, would that do?

Hey, bribery and corruption works sometimes, right?

i would gladly donate 10 to 50 dollars to the cause!!! where do i sign up and would like to have updates on the progress ...

Originally posted by dentpuzz:

Ok, Let's try this a different way. How much do you guys want to develop a browser for the Instinct?! If every p*ssed off Instinct owner chips in 10 bucks, would that do?

Hey, bribery and corruption works sometimes, right?

Haha, that's hot.